Summoners War - Beyond the Rift
by Graver7
Summary: A quest to save the world of the Summoners from the encroaching dark forces of the Rift.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The delicious night. Sanguine sweet, invigorated by the pulse of electric moonlight through the blurring trees. The fantastic, incredible night! Surrounded by knotted trees of untold ages singing songs of the wind in scratchy whispers, the beast bounded in great strides like the slosh of liquid metal. Waves of fur the color of crystal sky bristled in the succulent air.

The werewolf savored one thing above all, above the splendor of a full moon or the giddy thrill of a blood-chilling howl; he savored the hunt. The wet sweetness of a wild-maned boar's blood dripping from his chops, which he supped with glee.

It was one such muscled morsel he pursued through the dark woodland of Garen Forest under the cloak of night. While the wild mushroom men of the wilderness had pulled their caps down tight, the lycan was awake and alive…and hungry.

But something was not right in the woods that night. There was an odd feeling about them. At least, about odd as woods full of slime monsters could be.

Movement to the right, the crack of dry twigs. Vigor drove his powerful paws into the dirt and kicked off, altering his course with ease. It was too late he realized that it was not his dinner that had given away its position, but a foe. A dark shadow blurred from the brush and hit him full force in the side, forcing him to skid across the ground snout over tail until he smashed with bone-jarring force against the trunk of a massive oak.

"Scoundrel!" he snarled, rising quickly. "Witch or warrior, whomever you may be. I have been blindsided by a coward! You must think quite highly of your skill to be in my forest…at…night…"

His words trailed off into the dark as the target of his taunts strode casually from the dark cover into the moonlit clearing. Vigor's next words caught in his throat as he gazed at a face not unlike his own. This was not, however, one of the red wolves of the ruins of Vrofagus. This creature was of an emanating, ominous purple and bore armor that shined like onyx in the nightly glow. Massive black pauldrons framed its whiskers, which stuck like antenna from a grinning snout.

"Suddenly speechless?" It said with amusement. "A pity. You began with such conviction. What a miserable whelp you are."

"What—who are you?" Vigor finally stuttered. "I—"

"Do I look unfamiliar to you?" the purple wolf asked, and reared back in hearty laughter. "Clueless, as well. Pathetic."

Vigor raised his unsheathed claws, allowing them to gleam before the moon. "Listen here, cur. I care not who you are. I hope you've come prepared to bleed."

There was one thing not thought that was perhaps an even greater love than the hunt. The thing that tested the mettle of even the most ferocious wolf.

Battle.

Vigor attacked in a flash, but was immediately outclassed by his dark doppelganger, who spun like a hawk in a tailspin and sent a back paw at fearful speed into Vigor's ribs. The blue wolf flew, his body grinding a rut into the soft earth until he came to rest in agony, gasping for breath. "What…what do you want? Kill me quickly, if that's your wish. I've no fear of death."

"Death? Something much greater is coming to this world. Perhaps you may yet life to see it. Or not. Tonight, I shall take your meal. Should we meet again, perhaps I will make an entrée of you!"

With that, the dark wolf laughed again and bounded off into the night, no doubt to chase down the boar that had escaped Vigor's jaw.

"Damn," the blue wolf said, the edges of his vision blurring. The last thing he saw, high up above, was what remained of the sky island—a nearly forgotten revenant of the long ago Summoners War—floating like a cloud across the face of the pale moon.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 _Crack! Crack! Crack!_

The waves crashed fiercely upon the rocks of the shore at his back. The martial artist stood before a stone the size of two golems stacked end to end. His knuckles ached from the endless strikes against the dark slab, but still he drove on, one disciplined blow after another. Another wave broke against the shore, showering him with saltwater, which mingled with the sweat pouring from his brow.

The bright afternoon sun baked the beach, making it a hardscrabble griddle upon which the air waved in heated sheets. Luan's neck felt a sudden coolness, a reprieve from the maleficent rays showering him from above. He looked up to see the figure whom had lent him its temporary shade.

"Still at it, shrimp?" Sin asked with a snicker.

"What do you care?" Luan asked, returning to his cacophonous training.

"Because it's making me tired just watching you. Come on, let's go before you break a nail."

Luan punched again, his attention unwavering. "Leave me alone."

"Talking to your brother like that," Sin said, shaking his head. "Wow. I thought you were supposed to be the good brother."

"You're not going to distract me," Luan said with another strike.

Sin cleared the salty air from his nostrils. "So what? You're never going to be able to beat me. We both know it, so why don't you just give up?"

As his brother's words stung his ears, Luan focused all of his might into his fists for one final thundering blow to the stone. A mighty wave crashed at his back, enunciating the strike with a spray of salty sea, which clouded their vision until it sizzled and peeled back. The stone sat, perfect and unmarked.

"See? Told ya."

Luan raised his eyes to shoot his brother a dirty look when a sound broke through the crashing of the waves and brought his attention to the distant waters. A shape was approaching the shore quickly, cutting the water with impressive speed.

Luan's face brightened. "Zephicus!" He called out, waving to the approaching Charger. Something was wrong, he quickly surmised. A dark shape was following matching Zeph's movements almost exactly. It was then that Luan sensed that his friend was in danger.

"Not that overgrown sardine," Sin huffed.

"Something's not right. He's in trouble."

The shapes cut along a riptide and disappeared beneath the waves. Luan watched with short, tense breaths until they exploded from the water in an awesome, frothy column. In a blink they were shredding the beach in a furious match, kicking up sand in mighty clouds.

"Zeph!" Luan called, breaking into a full run toward the conflict. By the time he reached the battleground, his friend was bloody and exhausted, staring up from the ground at the dark shape that had bested him. "Hey!"

The creature suddenly looked at Luan with a hideous grin, and the young martial artist quivered at the face that was at once so familiar yet so alien. It looks almost exactly like Zeph, except it's skin was a luxurious dark, that seemed to both glow and swallow the light simultaneously.

"Who…What are you?" Luan gasped.

"Wrong question." The dark shark laughed. "How many bites?"

"Huh?" Luan asked, a heavy knot forming in his gut.

"You should instead ask how many bites it will take for me to finish your friend."

Luan dropped to a ready stance—a natural stance—his feet digging into the hot sand. "You'll have to take me, first!"

He attacked, ready to deliver a thundering blow, but the shark was so fast. It moved as if it were still shredding the water, blocking Luan's strike with the snap of its tail. A maw of razor sharp teeth grinned in his face, and he jumped, delivering a spinning kick that faintly connected with the shark's belly.

A glancing hit! Luan realized too late when the dark creature flipped and swatted him to the ground. He hit with force that knocked the air from his lungs, and it was only by his training and sheer instinct that he reacted when the shadowy figure bore down on him. He lashed out with both feet, knocking it away. His kick seemed had managed to stagger the shark, but if he didn't rise to his feet, he would be nothing more than a slightly delayed meal.

The tenebrous predator charged him again, and Luan was certain it was the end, when a flash of red blurred overhead, and a sound as great as the crashing waves split his ears as Sin flew by overhead and landed a devastating kick to the beast's shimmering maw.

Luan looked at his brother in a far more heroic light then. He had always been tough, one of the hardest fighters around to break, but he had never been willing to sacrifice himself for others. That was the brother Luan had always wanted.

Sin delivered three more incredible strikes, staggering the shark backwards. Luan rose, rejuvenated by the short reprieve and the thought of victory. He joined Sin, concentrating their might together until the dark shark dove into the water and turned its broken teeth to face them. "My name is Calicus. Remember it. It will be the last thing you know before you die!"

The shark called Calicus sped off under the waves and disappeared, leaving Sin and Luan to ponder the nature of this attack. They did not have long, however.

"What a gutless buffoon." A brusque voice slashed the air.

They turned to find a mirror image of themselves, dressed in dark, almost glowing purple.

"What is this?" Sin growled, but before he could make a move, the dark martial artist jumped from his place on the high berm before them, spun through the air, and kicked them both with frightening power.

Luan and Sin crashed to the ground, starbursts of pain clouding their vision. Their assailant delivered swift kicks to their rib cages, first one then the other, with arrogant glee.

"Here's Jackie!" he laughed.

Luan rolled onto his back as the one named Jackie delivered a barrage to Sin, who soaked the blows like a boulder, but was wearing down quickly. The dark haired martial artist was simply too fast and strong, and Luan was too spent to help. He turned his head away and looked down the beach. In the distance, he saw it. The rock he had struck one final time with all of his inner might before this mess had started. Blue sky shone between what had once been a single stone. It was split in two.

Luan clenched his fists and stood up.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Wind swept the open field, bending the grain in shaggy waves lit ablaze by the golden sunlight that dripped down the distant mountain peaks. The stalks beat gently upon Jun's kimono, as the wind cooled the sweat on his furrowed brow. His blade, unsheathed and glinting in the amber rays, was at the ready.

The portly panda sat to the side, resting on a tree trunk stool and nibbling a stalk of bamboo. In comparison to Jun's surly and dour demeanor, the bear looked relaxed and aloof…drowsy even.

"It's not working," Jun said, the hard edge of frustration creeping into his voice. "This is a waste of time."

"You must calm your mind," the panda voiced in a deep, gravelly bass. "The power is within you. You know this. The key is calling it in your time of need."

"But I can't _control_ it!"

"Control is an illusion. You must understand this above all else. You can hold back your anger, conceal your hatred, or deny your fear, but all it takes is the slightest crack in your barrier, and all of these things can quickly become much stronger than you."

"So what can I do? If I can't control my anger, if I can't overcome fear, I become nothing."

"With a calm mind, there is no anger. There is no fear. All of this you see is just a dream flowing into another dream."

"You're infuriating to talk to," Jun said plainly.

"Would you say it's…unbearable?" The panda let loose a loud, breathy guffaw at his pun.

Jun suppressed a slight grin of bemusement and quickly paved over it with more frustration. "Just tell me what to do, you ridiculous panda!"

Xiong Fei calmed himself. "Close your eyes and let go of the dream. Release the worry and the fear."

Jun let his sword arm fall to his side as he closed his eyes, breathing with the rhythm of the gentle breeze. The sunlight warmed his bare shoulder while the wind gently stroked his hair. He tried not to think of his last fight, of victory or defeat. All of these things were dreams.

"Now, you may open your eyes."

The second the samurai's eyes fluttered open, the panda Xiong Fei sprang from his seat, scooped up the section of trunk with one massive paw, and sent it hurling straight toward Jun's head.

With no time to do anything but react, June raised his sword in a whistling arc that slashed the trunk with flawless precision. As the two halves fell to the ground, Jun beheld a soft glow about him; his ki energy like a gentle red mist.

"See?" Xiong Fei motioned with an enormous paw. "You have harnessed the power again."

"But not enough to command the Supreme Sky Wolf."

"The Sky Wolf is not a power that obeys commands. It is not a reckless force of destruction. It will aid you in times of peril and need."

"And if it doesn't."

Xiong Fei sighed with a shake of his furry head. "Still so young. You must still learn and trust that the universe moves of its own accord."

"Just like that massive block of wood that came straight for my head?"

"See, this is why no one else would instruct you."

"Because I'm smart?"

"Because you're a smart—"

As the two warriors bickered, a sudden wind raked forcefully along the field, drawing into a turbulent eye that whirled above the field, seeming to draw the surrounding the stalks of the grain toward it.

Xiong Fei cleared his nostrils of the odd breeze. "On your guard," he said, his voice gruff. "I smell trouble."

The air around the raging vortex of wind began to crackle with pops and sparks, which locked into one another and quickly because streaks of bright purple lightning. Within the very center of the eye, an iris of light flashed open, flooding the field with a sort of non-light that swallowed all color of the golden grain.

Jun, covering his eyes against the flash, raised his sword. "Get ready!"

With a final blast of the strange, alien luminescence, the darkness peeled back the eye once again and the wind dissipated almost as immediately as it had come, and three shapes floated in the air. When they looked, three shapes approached on a ghostly glide, their tapered tail-ends wiggling like snakes.

"What are they?" Jun asked, and as soon as he spoke, one of them split from the three and shot straight at him, raking a razor sharp claw through the air. He raised his sword and blocked it in a spray of sparks, stumbling back at the power being the attack.

"Elementals!" Xiong barked. "Dark ones!"

The other two circled the panda, raining their dark talons down upon him, but he spun, dodged, twirled, and blocked in a flurry of metal and fur, protecting himself with his mighty pudao blade.

Jun began to sweat again as he fought the elemental. Though his skill was as sharp as his blade, the creature he fought was startlingly ferocious. He attempted to control his breathing, to anticipate attacks rather than respond with brute force. To the trained senses, time begins to slow down when adrenaline floods the system. Jun began to see more clearly, approaching the shore of a calm mind. A shield of energy enveloped him, making it easier to repel the attacks assailing him. With the sudden and sure strike, he cleaved the elementals arms, and finally separated the head from its body. It's corporeal form undone, it vanished in a tumbling snow of dark ash which blew away in the wind.

Xiong Fei was formidable master, but one of the blasted things has clawed his back, weakening him against their flurry of violence. He had to find an opening soon, for one more mistake could exact a cost too great to pay. With a grunt of power he growled, "Let's see how you handle…this!"

He spun in a fantastic cyclone of steel, slicing their tails and sending them barreling into the air above his head. He stopped suddenly when he saw the power encircling the samurai, and immediately rolled out of the way, expecting what was to come with delight.

"You have invaded this land, attacked up without provocation. For that you will pay!" Jun said, the light lifting his robes and hair, coating him in pure power. "Sword of the Supreme Skywolf! I summon your ultimate force!" With a might shout, Jun's sword flashed, and a scar of red light streaked the sky, cutting through the glowing brands that had seized the elementals in symbols of fire. They exploded like starbursts, more beautiful than anything Xiong had seen in some time.

"Haha! Yes!" The panda roared as the dark fiends disintegrated from existence.

* * *

The carriage rocked along the dusty road that stretched like a straight stalk of golden wheat to Garen palace, flanked by verdant fields of rolling green. A high, baking but beat down on the bounty hunters hat as he snapped the reins to quicken their pace. The thief surely had at least half a day's time getting ahead of them, and Wayne only hoped he had not yet left the village.

His thoughts turned to mysterious girl in yellow sitting in the carriage, with her little stuffed bear. He had found her walking dolefully on the roadside, shielded from the sun's rays by only a quaint umbrella. What she was doing out there all alone was a secret she would not reveal, but Wayne could not abide letting a little lost child fade away in his dust.

 _I'll get her to Garen port,_ he thought. _Someone else can take care of her from there. Then…I come for you, Lucien._


End file.
